Getting to Slieve Donard

We drove straight to Slieve Donard after summiting County Armagh’s highest point, Slieve Gullion earlier that morning. The start of the hike up Slieve Donard starts in the seaside town of Newcastle.

When we arrived in Newcastle the car park was full, so after doing a few laps in the car we spotted an overflow carpark in a field just behind and to the right of the main car park. A vintage car show was just starting with some lovely minis as we were leaving to hike up Slieve Donard.

We parked beside a lovely big tree which was where we had a picnic after our hike later that day.

The start of our hike up Slieve Donard

We instantaneously knew that there was going to be a big crowd on the hike, as we could see floods of people ahead of us on the trail. It’s so good to see so many families getting outside and enjoying the great outdoors. This is the first mountain that we met so many people on while doing the County High points (32 peak challenge)

From the carpark, we walked uphill into Donard Forrest, which was amazing. It was full of Mature trees which provided nice shade from the sun. We kept right of the Glen river and then we turned left onto a gravel forest track across the first bridge, from here we immediately turned right onto a cobbly track which ran on the left side of the river. It was so peaceful walking alongside the river and waterfalls. Once the track disappeared we followed a well-worn footpath southwest beside the river to join a second forest track. If in doubt while walking through the wooded area keep walking uphill following the path beside the river.

The forest was covered in a thin layer of fog but the sun was starting to break through. While walking up the hill out of Donard Wood it felt like we were walking through a scene out of the Lord of the Rings movie. We continue climbing up out of Slieve Donard scrambling over rocky areas while still walking parallel to the Glen River. As we walked out of Donard Wood we got our first glimpse of Slive Donard mountain but it was only the bottom section of the mountain as the peak was still covered in fog, but we still knew it was a big one.

About 100m after the top picture was taken the fog cleared and we could see the scale of the mountain that we were about to climb. We continued walking along parallel to the Glen river but the wooded area was now on our right-hand side. The footpath was in excellent condition with stepping stones in all the boggy places and river crossings.

After we left the last section of woodland we could see that we were walking towards the end of a valley and that the Mourne mountain trail swept up to the left to meet a Col between Slieve Donard and Slieve Commedagh. We continued walking up along the valley ascending slightly the whole time but it just felt like a pleasant uphill walk at this stage. We could see the hike was about to get much harder as the trail followed a very steep section at the end of the valley that walks up over the Col between the two mountains.

We eventually crossed the river that we have been following, at this point it was only a small stream. This was the first point of the hike that it became a steep hill. The footing of the path was excellent, every vertical step seemed to have a perfectly placed stone to form a safe position to place your feet. The ascent from the valley to the Col looked worse than it actually was and we hiked to the passing in 15 minutes.

This was our first glimpse of the wall that runs up over the top of the Mourne mountains, if we are being honest we didn’t do much research on this hike beforehand, but when you see this wall and you don’t expect it to be as big as it is, we were just amazed at its scale at such an elevated height. Just as we reached the wall, Ourlittlehiker was starting to nod off and we know now from previously stopping on other mountains when she is like this, that it can upset her and disrupt her sleep. We still felt in good walking form, so we took a left at the wall and continued up the toward Donard’s peak, but the sight of Slieve Donard up over us was very daunting.

I imagine there have not been many sleeping babies up on Slieve Donard, she was having such a good sleep while her Mammy and Daddy were sweating buckets but loving the challenge and views ahead of us. At this stage, the weather was getting very warm but if the wall was not there we would need our coats as the higher we walked the colder and stronger the wind became. It was a hard pull up the final section of the mountain but we eventually got a view of the Carn on top of Slieve Donard and it looks amazing. The cairn is built up on top of the wall on a raised platform.

At this stage of the hike we were starting to get slightly tired but Ourlittlehiker was still asleep. We were starting to get a small bit of attention from other people wanting to see the baby in the bag and unfortunately, they woke her up. This gave us an opportunity to take a few extra photos and have a small break and a quick snack. We were amazed that so many people were on top of the mountain, we usually see 2-3 people on top of most other mountains but there must have been over a 100 people up on the summit and maybe double that were still walking up the mountain.

We didn’t stay long at the top as it was very windy up there and at this stage, we were considering hiking another peak (this did not happen). On the way down the steep mountainside, we kept away from the path as it was slippy so we walked down on the grass zig-zagging to help our poor shakey knees.

We quickly descended back toward the saddle between the two mountains but we saw a number of people with running shoes falling from rushing and having poor footwear on. The descent from the saddle down to the top of the valley was a lot easier as the large stepping stone provided good footing for our tired legs. At this stage of the descent, we are still considering climbing Slieve Foye, the lack of accommodation has us slightly worried.

We noticed that we lost one of Ourlittlehikers spare hiking coats on the way up to the peak of Slieve Donard, we taught we lost it at the end of the woodland so we were keeping a keen eye out for her coat. We spotted her coat nicely placed on a rock exactly where we taught we lost it. We were so happy we found the coat as it was a present from a very generous friend.

When we reached the bottom, and the end of the hike, the overflow car park that we left empty was now full. We had a small picnic when we got back to the car, we left Ourlittlehiker in her hiking bag when we all ate our lunch. She loves just sitting there eating and looking around, it also helps us keep her safe from randomly running after dogs and cats.

While eating our picnic on the grass carpark, we tried to get accommodation near the next mountain but every hotel and Airbnb was booked in advance for the bank holiday weekend, so we decided to stop rushing and drive home after this mountain. After our picnic, we changed out of our hiking gear and went for a walk around the Car show, Ourlittlehiker loved all the cars and the noise they were all making.

Our Verdict on Slive Donard, Co Down Highest point

After walking 3/4 of the high points in each county of Ireland we were well used to walking on our own and being on top of all the mountains on our own. It was a bit of a shock to the system when we saw the large crowds walking up to the top of Slieve Donard.

We loved this hike, the footing on the way to the top of the mountain is very good and the path was very busy. The mountain trail is very steep in certain sections but when you reach the top of the mountain the views are amazing and well worth hard pull. This has been our favourite hike so far out of the 32 counties high points.

Advice for climbing Slieve Donard

• It is very steep so bring good hiking boots.
• We hiked it on a bank holiday, go on a weekday if you want to avoid the crowds.
• Bring lots of water as this hike will take over 4 hours.

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Mweelrea is the highest point in Mayo and the province of Connaught, sitting at an elevation of 814m. At the top of Mweelrea, there are magnificent views of Killary Ford, Ireland’s only Fjord and a glacier valley, Doolough Pass. Not to mention the amazing views of the 12 ben mountains and numerous others.

How long does it take to hike Mweelrea

We left our car at 8:30am and arrived at the summit at 10:30- It took us 2 hours to ascend the mountain

We left the summit of Mweelrea at 10:45 and reached our car again at 11:45- It took us 1 hour to descend Mweelrea.

It took us 3 hours 15 minutes to hike Mweelrea this also included breaks and one or 2 small detours.

Where to start hiking Mweelrea Mayo Highest Moutain

We decided to hike Mweelrea from the west side of the mountain. We drove the road from Louisburgh to Silverstrand beach and about 1km from the beach there is a cul de sac road leading up a farmers lane, we parked our car here to start the walk up to Mweelrea. There should be room for 4-5 cars here easily. The time we walked Mweelrea we met no one else, we can only assume there doesn’t be many hiking this mountain.

Hiking Mweelrea from Silverstrand side

Mweelrea Ridge walk

 

Must see, while hiking Mweelrea Mayos highest point

Croagh Patrick

Ben Baun

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Mt Errigal Key information

• Time to hike Errigal- 2 hours 50 minute with breaks

• Mt Errigal hike length- 3km up and 3km back 6km total

• Mt Errigal car park- Small car park but additional parking on the side of the road

• Mount Errigal map- see below

Hiking Mount Errigal (First Attempt)

It took us 2 attempts to summit Errigal. We have to be extremely cautious with exposed peaks like this mountain because we are carrying a baby. On our first attempt, we walked through the bog section and decided to stop, just before we reached the loose gravel path. The weather became very wet, cold and slightly windy on our first attempt to hike mount Errigal but the forecast said it would pick up, so we decided to attempt the hike while hoping the weather would improve. Unfortunately, the weather did not improve and we decided for safety reasons to return another time.

On the second attempt, the weather forecast was for an overcast day with chances of showers. Thankfully, we summited the mountain and returned back to the car within 3 hours.  We got amazing views and outstanding weather conditions.

Getting to Mt Errigal

Errigal is about 2 km from the town of Dunlewy, there are no footpaths or local transport available to the mountain. We did see people walking from Dunlewy Hostel but take care as the road is very busy.

We left our home in Carlow at 6:30am and drove for 4 hours 30 minutes to reach Mount Errigal. On our first attempt, we were camping in Killybegs which was 1 hour 30 minutes away.

Mt Errigal car park

There is a small carpark at the base of Mount Errigal, which is able to accommodate about 10-15 cars.

Even though we reached the car park at 11 am, it was totally full. We parked on the side of the road with lots of other cars squeezed in beside us. The side of the road parking seemed pretty safe.

When we stopped the car, we all sat there eating and refueling before our hike to the summit. After our breakfast, we changed

into our hiking gear, we were surprised to see lots of people walking in jeans and trainers.

Hiking Mt Errigal (Attempt 2)

As we already attempted to hike this mountain once, we knew which direction we were walking. We saw lots of people walking the shortest route to the start of the scree and we did this the last time too but this time we decided to walk a slightly longer route following the river, as there is a nice clean path the whole way until we reached a pile of stones, from here we then crossed the bog toward Errigal to the start of the scree.

We are now past our previous turnaround point, and the weather was lovely, there was a slight wind but nothing to worry

Mount Errigal path

about. When we initially stepped onto the scree it felt very similar to Croagh Patrick. Every step we took, it felt like we slid back down two more steps. Thankfully this didn’t last too long and the path became easier to walk on.

From here the path cuts up the ridge of the mountain while increasing in height pretty quickly. The path is very slippy and good walking boots are essential. The walking route quickly rises and pretty quickly we are level with the neighboring mountain Mackoght, which is also called little Errigal.

We start to think that we have reached the top of the mountain, as we can see a top point now. After climbing 29 high points, we have learned this foolish lesson the hard way and checked our Viewranger app to see that we still have 100m to climb vertically and a long ridge section to the summit.

The trail walks around to Mackoght side underneath a ledge. There are steep drops to the side here and care should be taken. Thankfully we were fully sheltered from the wind and we also didn’t meet anyone while on this tight ledge.

When we reached the top of this section we could finally see the summit of Mount Errigal. From this angle, there looked to be 2 peak summits but our research before the hike said that the first peak is the highest point in County Donegal so that’s the high point, that we are after.

We continue climbing upward from here but not at such a steep angle. As the mountaintop levels off slightly, the ridge becomes thinner and there are steep drops on either side.

When we reached the summit of Mount Errigal, there was a large crowd on top of the peak. We waited for 5 minutes to try and capture a quick photo of the summit on our own, which we thankfully got before another large crowd ascended onto the high point.

We walked along the thin one-man wide ridge, to the other peak which is only 2m lower than the other peak but unfortunately, we couldn’t get any nice pictures over there due to the large crowd.

We quickly started our descent to the bottom of the mountain. Thankfully we were prepared for the poor footing and had our hiking poles ready for the descent.

Our Thoughts on Mount Errigal Hike

Mount Errigal looks like an extremely hard mountain to hike, as it is quite steep looking on all elevations. The most difficult part of this hike is the loose scree on the ground, which makes footing very tricky. The path through the bogland isn’t fully visible and can be hard to navigate if there is heavy fog.

The views from Mount Errigal, are simply breath taken and well worth the hike to the summit, we really enjoyed this hike and highly recommend it.

We recommend that you bring good hiking boots and poles as we saw many people slip throughout the hike.

Mount Errigal Walk Time

Mount Errigal can be summited very quickly, we hiked to the summit and back to the car in 2 hours 50 minutes, which is pretty good going with a toddler on our backs. We only had a few short stops for water and photographs.

The views from Mount Errigal are simply breath taken and well worth the hike to the summit, we really enjoyed this hike and highly recommend it.

Mt Errigal Map

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Seltannasaggart East Slope is the highest point in County Roscommon. Seltannasaggart sits at an elevation of 428m and is part of the Arigna mountain range.

Our Journey to Seltannasaggart

This is our second high point to hike in the one day. The first high point was Corn Hill, we then drove to Seltannasaggart to hike our second county high point. The highest point in Roscommon is a little tricky to find, but there is a road network to walk on but it is in the middle of a wind farm. The county high point is marked with a small pile of stones but it is still hard to see.

We drove an hour from Corn Hill to Seltannasaggart, until we reached the bottom of a mining/windfarm road which had a signpost for “The Miners Way” and an old map of the route. We parked our car here on the side of the road and started our walk.

Hiking to Seltannasaggart East Slope, Roscommon high point

We started walking on an old quarry road which had a good walking surface but we didn’t fancy driving our car on it. We walked up the hill towards all the wind turbines. Seltannasaggart is certainly a different type of County high point, then all the rest. It made a pleasant change, to be walking in a different type of the landscape, even though many people would consider the area ruined, which it definitely is.

We were walking on a gradual climb up a hill, toward the end of the road. The road seemed to be dug in between two banks of mud dumped on either side of the road. We eventually came out into the middle of the wind farm. We kept following the road straight until we came to a T junction.

We turn right here at the T junction, we walk alongside a small man-made lake on out LHS. We came to another Y junction and follow the signs for T6-T8, we turned right here.

The road sweeps around a bend, we continue walking around the corner, while always keeping a keen eye out for the high point, we knew we were close.

Roscommon County High Point

We could see a small pile of stone in the distance, off the road to the RHS. We walked off the road toward the pile of stones. We checked our Viewranger app to ensure that we were walking in the right direction.

Typically, Ourlittlehiker would fall asleep just as we reached the high point. We were very cautious, as we didn’t want to disturb her, as she was due a good sleep and all the hikes that we have planned are short, so she won’t be able to get a long sleep in the car while we are driving.

We quietly walked back down toward the car, trying to let her rest in her backpack. When we reached the car, we quietly took the backpack off and let it rest on the ground. Thankfully she remained asleep, so we took out all the picnic gear and had a quick a bite to eat while she slept happily in her bag.

The verdict on Seltannasaggart East Slope, Roscommon’s highest point

Seltannasaggart East Slope is not one of the County high points that you would be super proud to have summited. It more or less felt like a Sunday walk but through a quarry or wind farm. We did enjoy the walk, it was nice and easy with a big variety of different views.

Which County High Point next?

We leave Seltannasaggart East Slope and drive 45 minutes to Cuilcagh Mountain, Fermanagh and Cavan’s highest point. This will be our hardest and longest County high point of the day. When we hike Cuilcagh, we will have summited 4 highpoints in the one day.

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Our goal was to climb County Longford, Roscommon, Fermanagh and Cavan highest points. County Cavan and Fermanagh share the same high point so this one will cut down on the driving. The hardest part of hiking every high point in every county of Ireland isn’t the walking or climbing up a mountain with a baby on your back, but it’s the driving between the mountains. We figured if the mountain is within 3 hours driving distance of our house we could drive to it, climb the mountain and drive home the same day. Today’s hiking will be tough, as there is roughly a 1-hour drive from each county high point. This means that we are over 3 hours drive home after we finish climbing our last mountain, if everything goes to plan, fingers crossed.

Our first mountain to hike is Cornhill or Carn Clonhugh and is possibly the easiest mountain of all 32 peaks in Ireland.

Cornhill Longfords highest point

We drove up and parked our car outside a lane to the summit of Cornhill, which was closed off by a metal barrier. We parked our car here to start our hike.

The barrier stops cars driving up the tarmac lane which is used to access the television mast. After driving over 2 hours, it was nice for all of us to get out of the car to stretch the legs.

We could see the Television antenna straight away from the barrier, so we knew this was going to be a very easy and quick county high point.

Starting our walk to the County Highpoint

The tarmac lane leads the whole way to the top of the high point so this could be walked in trainers if the weather was good.

On the way up to the high point, Ourlittlehiker has a toy camera and started to replicate her Daddy and kept shouting “Cheeeese, Cheeeese” and pointing her little toy camera at us, we all had a good laugh at it. It also broke the slightly dull viewless walk up to the summit.

After about 200m we walked around a corner and we could see a palisade fence around the tv antenna. We walked to the right-hand side of the fence and we could see the Longford county high point up on top of a raised bank just past the fencing.

After been up on a very busy high point the day previous (Slieve Donard), we realised that it was nice to be back hiking on our own again, as we could play around at the County high point instead of just taking one picture and leaving, as there was a queue on yesterdays high point.

High Point Dance

Gina decided to do a small dance on Longford Cornhill high point to celebrate our third high point of the bank holiday weekend, Ourlittlehiker loved all the dancing.

The verdict on Cornhill, Longfords highest point

Cornhill is only 278m high and is one of the easiest and maybe, as short as Cupidstown in Kildare (another very easy high point). There was not much of a view from the top of Cornhill, as the woodland trees are much higher than our eye level.

It only took us 10 minutes to reach the summit of Cornhill after leaving the car.

Which County High Point after Longford?

The normal route most people take after hiking Cornhill, is to go and hike Westmeath and Meath highest points but we already hiked these throughout the winter months, so we are now driving over to Roscommon to hike Seltannasaggart South East Slope. This CHP is slightly over 1 hour of a drive away.

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Kippure Mountain is the highest point in County Dublin. Dublin is the capital city of Ireland and is a neighbouring county to Wicklow, the county with the highest mountain outside of County Kerry. Kippure mountain is 40 km out of the city and can only be reached by car. Kippure is the 73rd highest mountain in Ireland.

We have driven past/near Kippure numerous times and never attempted to hike it, mainly due to weather conditions. When we hiked Cupidstown (County Kildare highest point) the next natural high point to hike should be Kippure, as it’s only a 40-minute drive away. We drove straight past the crossroads that lead to Kippure car park not realising it was so close but we only ever hike up the mountains if the weather conditions and forecast are showing good conditions.

We obviously should have researched Kippure mountain a little bit better, because there is an access road to the top of the mountain, so every time we drove past this mountain we probably could have ticked it off the list much sooner. But if your attempting to hike the 32 Peaks of Ireland, one thing becomes evident very quickly, the level of driving required to complete the challenge is massive.

Getting to Kippure Mountain- Co Dublin’s highest point

Like most Sunday mornings over the last 3 months, while completing the 32 peaks challenge, we rose from our beds early to hike Kippure mountain but thankfully we could have a slight sleep in, as County Dublin’s highest point was only 1 hour and 30 minutes drive away from our house. We reached Kippure mountain at 10 am and already the car parking space was becoming limited. This amazed us as the weather conditions were not the best, it was overcast with a strong breeze, we knew when we reached the top that the “strong breeze” would feel like a hurricane on the top, so we put on all our windbreakers. We saw some families starting to hike up the mountain in shorts and tee-shirts when we were dressed in 3 layers of clothes each.

Kippure Moutain is situated on the “Old Military Road” off the Sally gap crossroads. If you put Kippure Tv Mast into Google maps it will bring you straight to the car park. The drive up to Kippure Mountain is amazing, we drove home past the Guinness Lake and down into Glendalough. Both these sights are worth exploring on their own, simply amazing.

Hiking Kippure Mountain

The route we chose to reach the summit of Kippure is less of a hike and more of a walk but I did see other people walking in between the heather. We were not in the mood for walking in more heather as every high point is filled with it at the minute. We chose to walk up the road to the top of Kippure.

The hike to Kippure starts at the yellow and black barrier at the car park and you can basically see the whole route that you are about to walk in front of you from here.

Just as we started our hike the weather started to improve slightly and we could start getting views of other mountains around us. After about 20 minutes of walking, we could see the Sugarloaf mountain in Kilmacanogue.

The hike up along the road was longer than we expected and the views only really improved when we reached the corner close to the end of the road. The road started to sweep around the side of the hill which gave us views down into the valley above the Sally Gap. We could also see the great engineering feat that’s is turlough hill, which was built in 1974. My Dad still talks about this place, as he worked in the tunnels as a young man. The ESB pump water up into the top lake during the night and release it down into the lower lake during the day when there is a large demand for electricity.

The Top of Kippure Mountain- Dublin’s Highest Point

As we reached the entrance to the TV mast, we could see 2 concrete gate posts, the concrete looks like it has taken a serious beating throughout the years from the weather, as it is crumbling away. The Tv mast is massive in size and the fence surrounding it is very ugly. We skirted around to the rear corner of the Tv mast to find the county high point.

Amazingly enough, for such an easily accessible County High Point the centre section of the Ordnance Survey marker was still in the top of the post. Only a handful of the CHP’s has these and we didn’t expect Kippure to still have one.

At this point, the wind was very strong and we took shelter to the side of the mast to give our wind-stricken faces a break from the cold air. We sat down on the rocks looking over the Dublin sea. The views on Kippure mountain in late spring are pretty amazing, the whole mountain range is filled with an array of red and green foliage.

Map of Kippure Hike

See full screen

Our Thoughts on Kippure Mountain–County Dublin’s Highest point

We used this mountain as a rest day on the 32 peak challenge, as it was nice and close and essentially just a road walk. The walk up to Kippure summit is straightforward enough, as we just followed the road to the summit. The views near the top of the walk are nice, as we could see most of the Wicklow mountains from the top of the Dublin high point.

Kippure mountain is a perfect Sunday stroll and is a great rest day if you are completing the 32 peak challenge but the hike to the summit is reasonably dull. When you reach the bottom of the mountain you will be happy to get into your car and go home.

It took us 3 hours to reach the summit and descend Kippure mountain.

Allow time to explore nearby tourist attractions, as the surrounding areas are filled with amazing sights such as Glendalough round tower and the Guinness Lake. If you have enough time you could walk the Spink loop in Glendalough but allow 2 hours to do this hike.

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We should have parked where the black car parked

After our lovely night Glamping in Carrowmena, we were feeling refreshed and ready to climb another mountain. Approaching the Sperrin mountains it was becoming evident that hiking conditions on a mountain of this size were not great. We parked our car up at the base of the mountain on the Sperrin road and assessed the situation. We always vowed to think logically and not do any hiking if there was ever any sign of danger.

When looking out at the mountain we could not see any further than 200m. We decided to put on our hiking gear and wrap Ourlittlehiker up really well in her backpack and to go for a small walk to test the conditions. The day was not cold but mainly foggy, we consulted our maps and guidebook and knew that we were going to be following a fence the whole way to the summit of Sawel. So we decided to start hiking and if the weather starts to deteriorate we would return back to the car.

Parking at Sawel Mountain

There is a parking spot about 50 meters away from the start of the Sawel mountain hike. The parking spot looks like it could accommodate, maybe 3 cars. Don’t be a fool like us and hamper the farmers that are good enough to allow us to walk on their land, use the proper carpark area.

Hiking to the top of Sawel Mountain- Tyrone and Derry highest point.

When we drove down the Sperrin mountain road we got slightly disorientated and taught we were driving the opposite direction. This meant that we started hiking the mountain on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully we were keeping a very keen eye on the map and we only walked about 25 meters before we realised that we were on the wrong side of the mountain. We quickly returned back to the right side and started on the correct mountain this time. Thankfully, that is the very first time we got lost on this challenge.

Wrong Mountain Gina!!!

The initial start of this mountain crossed a flat marshy area before we started climbing the higher sections. This area is slightly boggy but we aren’t hiking in it for too long, so it won’t have much of a bearing on us. We felt that the fog was lifting slightly, as we were increasing our elevation height pretty quickly and we could still see our car perfectly, so we decided to continue hiking to the summit of Sawel mountain.

The main fence that we started following basically runs the whole way to the summit of Sawel Mountain. We had to cross a couple of fence stiles but they were easy enough to navigate even with a baby on our back.

After climbing to the top of the first steep section, the mountainside seems to nearly level out and the ground conditions seemed to get very boggy again. We even had to try to cross a wide stream, well about 1.2 meters wide, this didn’t go to plan but it was fun watching Gina run up and down the bank trying to get encouragement to jump over to the other side.

I don’t think she is going to make it…

We must have just missed a running race, as there were still signs hanging off the side of some of the fences (at least we know were on the right mountain this time).

Just as we were climbing the final section of Sawel mountain the fog got very heavy but we were sticking close to the fence for guidance. It is safe to say we would never have attempted this hike without the fence to guide us to the summit. Just as we reached the highest point of the fence it veers left, we knew that Sawel high point was in front of us but the fog was too dense to see it. We took out our Viewranger app on our phones and we could see exactly where we were and where the county high point was, so we walked in the right direction and found the Cairn in seconds.

Unfortunately, all our pictures are pretty poor from Sawel Mountain high point because when we reached the cairn the wind had also picked up and we only wanted to spend a couple of seconds on the top, as the weather conditions were against us. We took our photos and descended quickly to get shelter from the wind. Thankfully the wind was blowing from the opposite side and the mountain and it blocked us instantly when we descended a couple of meters.

As luck would have it, the fog started to lift on our descent and we eventually got some of the views of Sawel mountains and the Sperrin mountains and the valley below, they looked amazing, we were disappointed that we missed these amazing views on the way to the top.

Gina’s final jump of the day

Our thoughts on Sawel Mountain hike — Tyrone and Derry highest point

This was our first experience of hiking in fog with our daughter and we felt perfectly safe throughout the whole hike. This was a good tester for the fog as we had the fence as our guide to the summit of Sawel mountain.

Unfortunately, due to the heavy fog, we only got a very small glimpse of the views from Sawel mountain but it did look amazing from what we could see. We hope to return back to this county high point again in the future to get a proper feel for the hike up Sawel mountain.

Sawel Mountain Hiking Time

It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to climb to the top of Sawel mountain and back down to our car.

Sperrin Mountain Information

For Additional information look here

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Cuilcagh mountain is the highest point in the counties of Fermanagh and Cavan. The mountain sits at an elevation of 665m. In recent years Cuilcagh mountain has become a very popular walking route with the addition of a new boardwalk, which leads very close to the top of the Cuilcagh mountain summit.

This mountain is one of the few mountains that we have hiked twice. We originally decided to try and reach this county high point summit in November last year for Ourlittlehikers first birthday. At this stage, we had probably hiked all the easy county high points and we were trying to progress to the higher stuff but in gradual increments, which would allow us to increase our confidence with a 12-month-old baby on our backs.

When we originally arrived at the boardwalk / the marble arch caves side of the mountain, we were greeted with a very foggy and damp day. We didn’t let this discourage us and loaded Ourlittlehiker on our back and put on our wet hiking gear. We were hoping that the sun would break through the clouds and clear the fog.

The hike up the boardwalk was very enjoyable and as it was midweek we didn’t meet many other people. We’d imagine walking on a tight boardwalk with a wide baby carrier on your back would be very tight on this timber structure.

We eventually reached the top of the boardwalk and the fog had become even denser if that was possible. We knew we were within touching distance of the top but we just couldn’t take that chance with a baby on our back and such large cliffs all around the summit. We turned around without summiting Cavan and Fermanagh’s highest mountain but we really enjoyed the hike on this boardwalk hike which gathers such large crowds to see the stairway to heaven.

Attempt 2 to hike Cuilcagh Cavan and Fermanagh’s highest mountain

After hiking to the top of the stairway to Heaven on Cuilcagh Cavan, we started to concentrate on all our local county high points. We classed all the CHP hikes within 2-3 hours as driveable (with a baby) and concentrated on ticking these off the list on free weekends. This was honestly an enjoyable time for all of us and we really loved making these amazing memories.

On one of our many bank holiday adventures, we decided that we were going to hike 3 County high points in the one day. Obviously, the county high points were going to be reasonably low. So we set off at 5 am and hiked Longford and Roscommon’s highest points. We then drove to Cuilcagh Cavan and Fermanagh highest point. This time we decide to hike the mountain from the other side. We didn’t want to hike the Cuilcagh stairway to heaven boardwalk again because we knew there would be massive crowds and we wouldn’t enjoy it because of that.

We parked the car at the end of a wooded forest road with a yellow barrier. It was now 2 pm in the day and Ourlittlehiker was getting restless. If she wasn’t in her car seat she was in her hiking bag and she wanted to walk herself, so we let her. This was the first time that she ever looked to walk in the mountains. We let her walk the first section through the wooded area, a section that would usually take us 20 minutes probably took us over 1 hour this time but we were loving her excitement. Everything was new to her, she was running and pointing at Bees, flowers, grass and puddles. It was like she was up in her bag looking at all this nature and beauty and was dying to get down and explore.

We eventually reached the end of the wood road which zigzagged up to the TV mast, just below the top of a steep hill. From here, we had to follow a wire fence up the hill to reach the top. When we reached the top, we could see the summit of Cuilcagh Cavan and Fermanagh high point. According to the OS map, we only had over 100 vertical meters left to the summit but we had to walk 3-4 km to reach it. There is a trail along this mountain but it cuts very close to the cliff edges, we chose to stay inland a bit more because Ourlittlehikers bag acts like a sail sometimes and we were afraid that it could be caught with a random wind gust.

This county high point was proving to be a real adventure, the route to the top cuts in through peat bogs, down through gorges and up along a very steep cliff, we were loving it. Obviously, there was loads of sheep and Ourlittlehiker was pointing out every one of them to us.

From this side of Cuilcagh, the mountain is shaped like a semi-circle or horseshoe and we were walking around the top edge to reach the summit. Just as we reached the last section we had to climb a steep slope to reach the top section, this is where the Cairn rests. When we reached the top of the steep slope, we could eventually see the Cairn. We walked over to the Cairn, which rests on a large pile of stones on the opposite side of the Cuilcagh Cavan mountain top.

We expected to see large crowds of people up here because of the stairway to heaven boardwalk but we quickly realised that most people don’t know that Cuilcagh is Cavan and Fermanagh amazing county high point after the end of the boardwalk. We only met 2 other couples at the top of the mountain. The views from the top of this mountain are pretty amazing, we were loving all the heather and cliff views.

At the top of Cuilacagh Cavan and Fermanagh high point, Ourlittlehiker was trying to get out of the hiking back, she was trying to stand up and take her arms out of the straps. We think that she had got a taste for walking and exploring for herself and wanted more. Unfortunately, the top of a mountain is not a place for a toddler to walk on their own so we re-adjusted her straps to keep her safe in her bag. She eventually saw the funny side of it after a small tantrum.

We traced our trail back toward the car but we became very tired, as at this stage we were all hiking most of the day. Ourlittlehiker fell asleep just as we left the summit and her Mammy and Daddy accelerated pretty quickly to get to the bottom before she woke up. Like all descents on the mountains, we made excellent time but going downhill is really hard on the knees especially with a snoring baby on our backs. We think we have perfected the art of swapping the bag between each other while she is sleeping without waking her up.

When we reached the car we all had a very quick picnic and we started our 3-hour drive home. Tomorrow’s work will not be the most productive but it was all worth it.

What an amazing day, we climbed 3 mountains and ticked 4 county high points off our list.

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Knockboy is the highest point in County Cork and sits at an elevation of 706m. The hike up to Knockboy mountain starts from the Priest’s Leap mountain pass monument at 519m. Knockboy is on the border of Cork and Kerry but is only County Kerry’s 30th highest mountain. The priest leap mountain pass is the highest pass road in the province of Munster.

The roadway up to Knockboy and the Priest’s Leap pass is definitely one of the most interesting roads of all the County High Point roads. The road is very tight in places with little room for error and there are large drops into the valley below if mistakes are made. Even more interesting than the tight road is the contours that the road follows, some of the vertical gains and dips are extreme, to say the least. We were greeted with cows, sheep and a horse sitting and resting on the side of the road, Ourlittlehiker loved every second of this. She hasn’t mastered the ability to string together full sentences yet but we all knew she was trying to talk about the animals for about 1 hour after seeing them so close to the car.

Overview of Knockboy County high point hike

The hike up to Knockboy is a reasonably straightforward out and back hike. We followed a fence up the hill to a T junction of fences, then took a left until we met another T junction of fences, from here we follow this fence the whole way up the hill to Knockboy mountain.

It took us 2 hours to get up to the top of Knockboy mountain and return to our car at the Priest’s Leap mountain. We had numerous stops for snacks and breaks on the way up and down.

Knockboy key information

• Location- Starting point here
• Distance- 5km
• Duration- 2 hours out and back walk
• Difficulty- Gradual climb- 3 out of 10
• Parking- 2 to 3 cars only
• Amenities- none
• Signposts- None but can follow the fence to the top
• Things to see- The road to the priest leap is great fun
• Advice- Bring waterproof boots
• Recommendation- 6 out of 10

Knockboy Hike

After our adventurous drive up to the Priest’s Leap passing, we parked opposite the monument. There looks like there is enough parking here for 3 cars if all the cars are parked tightly. After we parked our car we did some exploring of the area. The car park area is very high 463m and has spectacular views down the centre of the valley.

We walked across the road toward the monument and crossed down into the road gully and back up into the meadow. We followed the wire fencing up toward the top of the hill. After driving 3 hours 35 minutes our legs were stiff and very sluggish. We initially felt tired after the long drive but we weren’t walking long before we stretched the legs out and got into the walking rhythm.

We continued to follow the fence up the hill, the fence starts to rise out of the meadow, up over mounds and clay banks. Sometimes it is easier for us to walk around the mounds of clay than walk over them. Halfway up the first section of fencing we walked through part of the hillside that was filled with white flowers which resembled cotton or daisies, we weren’t sure but they were extremely pretty.

We reached the first fencing junction (basically a T junction), we took a left here. There was only 1 sty to cross the fencing on this whole walk so be prepared to climb wire fencing. We are now greeted with small rock mounds covered in soil in front of us, we walk around these to meet the fence on the other side. It’s amazing that someone erected this fence into the rock face going over the hill, that is dedication.

Just as we walked around this rocky mound, we walked into our first boggy area. Unfortunately, Gina walked into the mud straight down to her ankles. She had soggy wet ankles for the remainder of the hike. Ourlittlehiker loved seeing her Mammy getting wet feet and kept shouting “oh-oh Mammy”.

Overall the ground conditions were ok for us, but we had to watch out for soft spots. We can only imagine that in a wetter time, this mountain would be extremely boggy and you might even need Wellies.

We walked up to the next T junction of fencing, from here we could see a small lake below us and Knockboy mountain above us. We could even see the fencing running the whole way up the hill, we knew we would be following it to the summit. It even looks like someone has put the fence down into the lake, these are very dedicated fencers on Knockboy mountain.

We descended down into the small dip that houses the tiny lake. We walked around over to the rear of the lake and crossed over to the other side. This is the only Stile that we saw on the walk up to Knockboy. As we walk past the lake, Ourlittlehiker keeps shouting “Bath”, she thinks the lake is a big bath and she wants to get in, Lol the innocence of it all.

We now start our ascent to the top of Knockboy. We follow the well-worn path in the grass up along the fence until it crosses the fence for a final time. The main reason we cross here is that the ground conditions look better on the other side of the fence.

We can see the Cairn of Knockboy from about 50 meters away. We reached the top of Knockboy very quickly and easily. The views on the decent are amazing, we could see all Kerry’s highest mountain on the right-hand side in the far distance.

When we reached the bottom of the hike we had a lovely picnic and admired the views down along the valley. After our picnic we let Ourlittlehiker try our her new Deuter Backpack. We did a tiny little hike over to a cross and Ourlittlehiker carried her own bag and a walking stick, we can see she already loves walking and hiking.

The verdict on the Hike to Cork’s highest mountain

We hiked Knockboy in a very warm mild time of the year. The ground was dry in most places but still, there were boggy and swampy areas, so be careful and watch out for these.

On the hike up to the summit of Knockboy, the views on either side of the walking trail are slightly disappointing as there didn’t seem to be a great landscape to appreciate on the ascent. Like most of our hikes when we are climbing we generally don’t stop and look behind us but the views to the rear of us when we were climbing up were amazing, we obviously got to admire these views on the descent.

The top of Knockboy is surrounded by other larger peaks in County Kerry. The views from the top are still pretty impressive. Knockboy is a relatively easy County high point but if the weather was wet and the ground was damp and boggy, I’d imagine Knockboy would be a much harder hike.

Overall we enjoyed our hike up to Corks highest point, it was a short hike and definitely not worth all the driving but it is another high point off the list.

Which County High Point next after Knockboy?

We have only 1 county high point to climb in Munster remaining after climbing Knockboy and that is Carrantuohill in County Kerry. As we drove over 3 hours to climb Knockboy we should have stayed the night and climbed Carrantuohill the next day but unfortunately, with work commitments we both have to be home early the next morning.

We might leave the highest mountain until last now.

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Moylussa is the highest point in Co Clare and the summit sits at a height of 531.6m. The trail that we used to hike Moylussa started beside the village of Killaloe. Killaloe is a small village that sits on the shore of Lough Derg and the River Shannon.

When we inputted the coordinates into the car sat nav, we were 2 hours 35 minutes drive to the start of our Saturday morning hike. We all woke at 5 am and left our house in Co Carlow with the expectation to arrive at Lough Derg around 8:30 am. As it was a Saturday morning on a bank holiday, we met no traffic and flew down to the start of the Moylussa hike for 8:30. When we reached the starting point of the Moylussa hike, we sat and had a lovely little breakfast picnic looking over Lough Derg.

A part of the Moylussa hike follows some of the East Clare way. We always love getting a taste of all Ireland’s long distant waymarked trails.

Moylussa Key Facts

• Walking time to Moylussa top- 3 hours 30 minutes with breaks
• Distance to the summit- 10 km
• Amenities- Yes there is a scatter of seats along the route
• Difficulty- Not very difficult- 4 out of 10.
• Signposting- There are signposts but for a number of different hikes and slightly confusing.
• Hike Quality- Nice hike but it was foggy when we did it. 5 out of 10.

Starting Hiking Moylussa

The start of the Moylussa high point hike starts in the Ballycuggarn forest. We parked our car down in the car park beside Lough Derg, as we wanted to walk Ourlittlehiker around the lake to let her see the Ducks before we started our climb to the top of Moylussa.

We started the hike by crossing the busy road, to enter Ballycuggaran forest (take care on the road it is extremely busy). We walked up into the woodland on the forestry access road which has a rough hardcore surface. After about 3-4 minutes we reached the start of a lopped walk and another car park area but the road up to this point is a little bit rough and we saw a few cars struggling to drive up to it. At the yellow barrier, we followed the loop walk up to the top corner of the wood.

The woodland trail initially cuts up through a mature wooded area which provided us with shelter, as it was raining and foggy when we started our ascent to the top of Moylussa. We didn’t get many views of Lough Derg until we walked out of the forest trail and onto an access road for timber lorries. The view of Lough Derg even on a misty day is impressive.

We crossed two timber lorry access roads but we continue following the looped walk trail while walking uphill. The trail has a small bit of damage from water erosion due to our harsh winter this year. It made a pleasant change to be walking in a green woodland area rather than an open windy mountain.

The trail eventually leads up to a lorry road, which we followed around Feenlea Mountain. We could now see the base of Moylussa mountain but unfortunately, most of the mountain was covered in fog.

The forest is in the process of being cut down and we had views all around Lough Derg from this point. I assume this road is very busy during the weekdays with timber lorries moving all the cut down trees.

Follow the Moylussa Sign

Just as we walked around the back of Feenlea Mountain we saw two signs of Moylussa pointing down the hill at the Y junction. We followed the road which dipped down into a hollow and rises up again until we found another sign pointing up a narrow trail through another forest. This trail is cut into the clay bank on both sides.

The fog was still pretty thick at this stage and the higher we rose the thicker it got. The trail started to become extremely steep from this point, we were walking along and out of nowhere (due to the fog), we saw an extremely steep hill in front of us leading up toward a gate. The trail leads towards the gate, then it seems to circle around the gate to the right. The ground is now really slippy due to the crushed shale stone and it doesn’t provide great footing, especially on the descent back down.

The hardest section of the Hike

We follow the zig-zag trail up the steepest section of the hike to Moylussa. This section is the toughest section of this whole hike, so a pretty easy hike overall. It is a pity that it was so foggy on the day that we climbed Moylussa, as we imagine the views on the ascent would be very impressive.

Moylussa Boardwalk Sections

At the top of the zigzag road, we were greeted by timber steps up onto a new railway sleeper boardwalk. The boardwalk was placed on the top of Moylussa mountain to help keep the hiker’s feet reasonably dry. We walked along the top of the boardwalk until we reached a stone at the top of the mountain with 1748ft marked on a plaque.

Finding Clare County High point

The version of our guidebook is an old one and it doesn’t mention this stone as the high point so we decided it would be better if we follow the guidebook to find their high point. We walked to the rear of the large stone toward the wire fence and then followed the fence up the hill.

The fence follows a very boggy peat road that is very soft so take care here as we were crossing it once and I went down to the knee in one section (very funny, but slightly frightening). We followed the fence up toward the highest point of Moylussa, until a corner in the fence. We then took out our Viewranger app and found the exact high point of 532 which had no distinctive marks at all.

We then followed the fence back down to where it met the start of the boardwalk. As we descended the fog started to clear and we finally got a nice view of Lough Derg in the distance.

Map of Moylussa Hike

Our verdict on Moylussa Co Clare high Point

We climbed to the top of Moylussa and back down to the bottom in 3 hours and 30 minutes, this included a few small stops and breaks for water drinking along with Sheep, Cow and Cuckoo spotting. If you allow 3-4 hours you should easily do this hike.

This was an enjoyable hike and we imagine it would have been much better if it wasn’t raining and foggy. This is the third time we have hiked a county high point in foggy conditions and we always find it mentally harder.

We plan to come back again someday and climb Moylussa mountain as we want to see some of the amazing views we missed this time.

This is a very nice and easy hike. No major navigation skills are required here unless you try to find the exact high point like us but you will need an OS map and compass or the Viewranger app to do this.

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